Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Part 1: Mexican Cartel-Canadian Drug Pipeline

Lucio R. Borderland Beat - thank you to Canadiana, republished from National Post

Port of Vamcouver

Part One

How Hells Angels
and criminal gangs came to control much of the Vancouver docks

More
than two dozen of the longshoremen unloading container ships on the docks of
Metro Vancouver are Hells Angels, their associates, other gangsters or people
with serious criminal records, a Vancouver Sun investigation has found.

The
infiltration of gangsters and criminals into the port workforce is perpetuated
by a longtime employment practice that allows existing union members to
nominate friends, relatives and associates when new jobs become available.

Police
say organized crime maintains this foothold on the waterfront for strategic
purposes — so drugs and other contraband can be smuggled in some of the more
than 1.5 million containers that pass through the four container terminals at
Port Metro Vancouver every year.

Just
over three per cent of containers arriving here are checked by the Canada Border
Services Agency.

“It
is a concern to us. We feel that a lot of the illegal drugs that come into this
country come in through our ports,” said Det.-Staff. Sgt. Len Isnor, the
country’s top law enforcement expert on the Hells Angels.

We
feel that a lot of the illegal drugs that come into this country come in
through our ports

Isnor,
who works for the Ontario Provincial Police, has testified at several major
B.C. cases involving the biker gang.

Isnor
said the Hells Angels have maintained a foothold in Canada’s three largest
ports — Vancouver, Montreal and Halifax — for the past 30 years.

“So
as far as the ports are concerned, it’s the whole success of the Hells Angels.”

While
airports have tightened security in the post-9/11 world, Metro Vancouver docks
remain relatively porous, allowing people linked to organized crime, and even
some convicted of international drug smuggling, to work on the waterfront.

The
Sun has identified at least six full-patch Hells Angels who are active members
of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.

Some
have worked on the docks for years, like Al DeBruyn, a senior White Rock Hells
Angel who started in 1981 — two years before the HA was set up in B.C.

Other
Hells Angels joined the longshoremen more recently. Rob Alvarez of the elite
Nomads chapter and Kelowna Angel Damiano Dipopolo started on May 24, 2012. West
Point Hells Angel Ryan Sept started just last year, nominated by another
full-patch member of his chapter.

Bikers
aren’t the only people with links to crime working on the waterfront.

Others
who police have publicly identified as gangsters, such as Mani Buttar and Bobby
Tajinder Gill, are also longshoremen, as are some of their associates.

Buttar
has been a member of Local 502, a Vancouver local of the International
Longshore and Warehouse Union, since 1998. The local provides hundreds of
workers a day to Fraser Surrey docks and Deltaport. And Buttar, whose two
brothers died in gangland shootings, is on his union’s executive committee
despite a lengthy criminal history.

Gill
is in jail after police issued a warrant for him several months ago on some
outstanding charges.

The
Sun has documented 27 active longshoremen with gang or criminal links from
various sources of information, including public records and union membership
lists.

That
number doesn’t include the “inactive” members of the union who are also Hells
Angels — East End president John Bryce, Nomads Angel Gino Zumpano, Haney member
Vince Brienza, West Point member Larry Amero and former Vancouver president
Norm Krogstad.

ILWU
national president Mark Gordienko agreed to be interviewed for The Vancouver
Sun series. But he cancelled without explanation the day before the interview.
He also declined through a spokesman to answer written questions for the Sun.

The
Hells Angels did not respond to emailed interview requests.

Police
admit there’s a serious problem when criminals and gangsters have the ability
to move drugs and other contraband through Port Metro Vancouver.

A
series of government and police reports about organized crime on the waterfront
and obtained by the Sun show authorities have been documenting concerns for two
decades.

“The
presence of numerous members of organized crime groups (OCGs) as dockside
employees of the Port of Vancouver, coupled with the ability to access the port
by members of OCGs employed in the trucking industry creates a high-risk for
smuggling at the port,” says a September 2010 internal Border Services Agency
report.

The
only way someone can get hired as a longshoreman in British Columbia is by the
ILWU putting their name forward.

Port
Metro Vancouver then issues a basic port pass. A criminal record check is not
required, yet the pass allows wide access to the tens of thousands of
containers stacked behind locked gates in Vancouver, Surrey and Delta.

Port
Metro vice-president Peter Xotta said he was unaware of how many port pass
holders are Hells Angels or others with criminal links.

“We
certainly don’t have that level of detail,” he said.

“My
sense of it is it is much more difficult for this (criminal) activity to occur
on the waterfront. That’s not to say that there aren’t elements or individuals
on the waterfront and in other parts of working society in Vancouver that
aren’t involved in some sort of activity that could give rise to concern.”

Andy
Smith, president of the B.C. Maritime Employers Association, said his agency is
aware of the Hells Angels and others with gang connections on the docks.

“Yes,
we are aware of who they are. They make no secret of it,” he said.

Yes,
we are aware of who they are. They make no secret of it

But
he also said his association’s role is to ensure longshore workers are properly
trained, not worry about their criminal histories.

“It
is not within my mandate,” Smith said. “We are a service provider to the
industry — primarily to labour relations and training and secondarily in terms
of government relations and social outreach. In any of those arenas, we have
yet to see a situation where someone’s criminal associations or participation
in the Hells Angels, or whatever, has been an issue.”

Some
of the thousands of dock workers in B.C. also possess a higher-security
Transportation Security Clearance pass issued by Transport Canada that allows
them inside restricted zones on the waterfront.

Workers
are screened for links to organized crime and criminal records before those
passes, known as TSC, are issued.

But
Smith said the restricted zones at the port are small compared to the areas
accessed with the general pass.

“If
you are talking about access of workers to long rows of containers which are in
lightly populated work areas day or night, the TSC doesn’t come into it,” he
said.

Guy
Morgan, director of security and screening programs for Transport Canada,
wouldn’t comment specifically on the Hells Angels or other criminals working on
the waterfront. But he said his agency does screen several ways for links to
organized crime before issuing the TSC passes.

He
suggested the Hells Angels on the Sun’s list don’t have the high-security
passes — though he wouldn’t say so directly or comment on any individuals.

Morgan
said it’s unfair to compare the two as there are also areas at the airport
where workers don’t need the high-security clearance.

“I
think that the marine transportation security regulations have set out very
robust security requirements for the vessels, the ports, the marine facilities
and the purpose of those regulations is to enhance the international framework
for the deterrence and prevention and detection of acts that may threaten
security in the marine port,” Morgan said.

“We
are continuously reviewing and enhancing our marine security regime and that
includes our security regulations, our standards, our procedures in order to
maintain that security environment.”

Senator
Colin Kenny, who has been outspoken on national security issues, was in
Vancouver last fall talking to Port Metro Vancouver officials about security.

He
thinks more should be done to deal with organized crime on the waterfront, an
issue that crops up every few years but never gets addressed.

But
Kenny doesn’t expect a clampdown on criminalized port workers any time soon,
given the RCMP is reassigning hundreds of officers across the country to work
on terrorism cases. Many of those resources have been taken from organized
crime cases. That, said Kenny, is short-sighted.

“We
have made the point consistently that if people from organized crime can get
in, terrorists will follow,” said Kenny, who sits on the Senate’s National
Security and Defence committee.

“Generally
speaking, there is a huge lack of interest on the part of almost everybody.”

Yet
there has been two decades of damning documentation about the problem.

A
2012 Transport Canada obtained by the Sun under the Access to Information Act
identified the potential “exploitation of the commercial marine transportation
system to smuggle narcotics from the Americas to Canada’s Pacific Coast.”

Most
of the report was censored for security reasons, including the executive
summary.

But
the section titles alone are revealing.

The
section called “Methamphetamine and Precursor Chemicals” is three pages long —
all blanked out.

It’s
followed by a section titled Drug Trafficking Organizations, about half of
which has been removed.

Details
of Mexican cartels, including the Sinaloa, Los Zetas, Knights Templar and the
South Pacific Cartel were provided in the report between blanked out sections
about “port seizures” and strategic implications.

The
report acknowledges that Mexican cartels use ships to transport their drugs to
Canada and elsewhere.

Those
cartels already have connections in Vancouver, as revealed by the Sun in a
recent series.

The
2010 CBSA report, also obtained under the Access to Information Act, said that
while the Mafia and Hells Angels “have exerted the most significant criminal
influence at major Canadian marine ports, many other international OCGs,
including Asian, East Indian, Persian, Middle Eastern, Eastern European and local
groups have developed a presence in Canada.”

“Although
the number of seizures in the marine mode are low, relative to the air and land
modes, the quantities seized in a given enforcement action are typically very
high,” the report says.

CBSA
seizures at Port Metro Vancouver over the past five years prove that point.
Between 2010 and 2014 more than half a tonne of cocaine was discovered by CBSA
searches of containers arriving at Port Metro Vancouver. Almost two tonnes of
the party drug ketamine and more than 20,000 litres of liquid precursor
chemicals used in the production of meth were also seized.

“Vancouver
marine will continue to pose a high risk for the smuggling of precursor
chemicals into Canada from China and India,” the CBSA report says.

“However,
Prince Rupert may increasingly become the port of entry for precursor chemical
shipments due to expansion in marine container commerce and/or a deliberate
effort by smugglers to direct shipments through Prince Rupert, in the hope of
evading seizure of the shipments.”

The
CBSA clearly links the smuggling to the Hells Angels and other gangsters
working at the port “in key positions — longshoremen, equipment operators,
foremen and truck drivers.”

“Joint
forces operations by Canadian law enforcement agencies, which have included the
CBSA, have succeeded in dismantling smuggling operations and temporarily
disrupting the movement of drugs, cigarettes and other contraband. However
since OCGs are adept at quickly re-establishing their presence at the ports,
these successes are typically shortlived.”

The
2010 report echoes two others prepared by police in the mid 1990s and obtained
from Sun sources.

A
1995 report done by the Criminal Intelligence Section of B.C. says “Hells
Angels have numerous members in the longshoremen’s union, employed in a variety
of port jobs. This has provided them with the direct means of transporting
narcotics and other drugs internationally.”

And
it says B.C. Hells Angels have close connections to the Mafia, or “traditional
organized crime.”

“Hells
Angels employees have access to a variety of ports in various locations, access
to vessels, containers, scheduling and their own trucking companies to load and
unload product. The Hells Angels East End chapter’s relationship with
traditional organized crime not only serves in expanding the parameters for
economic opportunities through illegal means but unites these two organizations
in a partnership of strength,” the report says.

“Organized
crime access and control of ports for movement of drugs and other illegal
products is in place.”

A
1994 report titled Organized Crime and the Port of Vancouver describes an
environment on the docks that could have come straight out of the classic film
On the Waterfront.

The
report, prepared by the now-disbanded Ports Canada Police, said “the Port of Vancouver
has been extensively infiltrated by organized crime elements and is also
extensively manipulated from the outside by local and international organized
criminals.”

“For
many years, it was known that a number of longshoremen on the port were affiliated
with the Hells Angels. Numerous times, thefts of containers and their goods had
been attributed to the Angels and their inside men. Unfortunately, a detailed
list of these past incidents would take up too much room,” the PCP report said.

“Angels
are among the first to board arriving ships. They unload goods, place them for
storage, load them onto trucks and prepare the necessary documents for
shipping.”

They
also bully co-workers to prevent complaints about them, it said.

“They
intimidate fellow workers, both on the docks and in the offices, with threats
of violence and death, and have successfully imposed a forced code of silence
on the port.”

Smith
said he hasn’t heard reports of intimidation of other workers by Hells Angels
or others linked to organized crime since he started at the BCMEA in 2007.

“We
have never received a complaint,” Smith said. “I am aware of one instance that
occurred before I got here.”

In
that case, a full-patch Hells Angels wore his “colours” — the leather vest with
the patch on the back — to work.

“The
action taken to get him to take his colours down was initiated by an ILWU
official at the time,” Smith said.

He
said he has also “never been contacted by any federal official with concerns
about gang activity at this port.”

“They
haven’t raised those issues with me for which, quite frankly, I’m thankful. I
don’t know what I would do about them.”

Xotta
said Port Metro works closely with the CBSA, the RCMP’s National Port
Enforcement Team, local police agencies in the Lower Mainland and Transport
Canada.

“The
port has primary responsibility around keeping the port and surrounding waters
safe for navigation and for the trade mandate that we have,” he said.

“Our
specific responsibility in terms of security is really linked to a function of
the collaboration between those agencies.”

Four
years ago, Port Metro opened an Operations Centre in Canada Place, where
workers can monitor video images from 400 cameras strategically placed all over
port properties. They can also alert law enforcement if they see a problem, as
they recently did with the chemical fire at the Centerm container terminal.

“Some
of them (the cameras) are incredibly powerful. We’ve got lines of sight for
both day and night vision on the port’s patrol vessels,” Xotta said. “We’ve
invested in two new patrol vessels in the last year. These vessels are …
significantly faster vessels than we had previously.”

New
high-tech security gates have been installed in most areas and will be put in
soon Roberts’ Bank, where Deltaport — Canada’s busiest container port — is
located.

Xotta
said that “unlike in generations past — (the gates) create a level of security
and visibility around the ports so that if there is criminal behavior happening by any member of the waterfront community, it’s a little more
difficult to come and go then it might have been many years ago.”

Asked
if criminals or Hells Angels should be working at the port at all, Xotta said:
“It’s a question for the RCMP and Transport Canada.”

Smith doesn't see clamping down on bikers or other criminals on the docks as the
solution to preventing illicit cargo from getting through the port.

“If
there are methodologies by which to get product through the port in containers
or otherwise — if somebody thinks, well, raising the bar for people to come and
work here is going to slow that down — I don’t think so. There are always
vulnerable people,” Smith said.

“There
are always people who are ethically or morally challenged. And if it wasn't people with records or who are members of groups which are deemed to be not
acceptable, they will always find people to do this work for them.”

Hahaha its the same here in L.A. County, the Fire Department is being investigated for choosing family members, n by passing qualified candiates, for positions in the department. CORRUPTION is everywhere!!

12:32 It is a little more difficult to get these shipments into the ports of the US I use to do federal drug testing on many of the ports. I can assure you there are no Hells Angels working there. Unless they have a perfect criminal record. Also all the US ports have zero tolerance for drug use. Immediate termination if in the system. Frequent random checks. It seems Canada is more relaxed with their port employment. Thus allowing inside guys as the article states. Canada is always the way they try to enter the US. Thar is changing though.

OK I live in Canada (BC) much of the year and in Mexico for part of the year. I lived in Vancouver for nearly 20yrs, my uncle in law was a longeshoreman....he used to get good cocaine there to sell....long time ago. BUT I must say it is very hard to believe much of the cocaine and weed comes there from Mexico as the crap coke in Mexico and the bad weed there (low quality)is nothing compared to the cocaine you get in Vancouver which is very pure....I think much more of it actually comes in from Columbia and Peru on ships....

Lol. Mexico gets their cocaine from columbia and Peru. Lmao so how could it be less potent than canadas? & about the weed you are correct. The weed MX grows is shit but that's only because they grow it wildly and only do it in bulk. There is yet to be a professional kush grower that can grow high thc potency at such high numbers. The MX cartel is in it for business; flipping a quick profit not for the love of botany.

Easy 6:48pm the cocaine coming straight from Colombia or Peru isn't being stepped on by the Mexican cartels. When the Mexicans get the cocaine they cut it to make a bigger profit. By the time this cocaine gets to Canada it's probably been cut 3 times before it actually gets to the Canadian consumer. Hence is why the cocaine potency would be lower and crappier. This is dope game 101 homie.

But but but but, and so it goes: impunity and great lack of transparency in Canada exists just as it does in Mexico and the USA albeit better hidden with more money and better lies--all made to appear quite legal--in the USA. Officials, civil servants, and politicians (lawyers) will be apologists for criminals everywhere, and everyone gets away with the goods. Funny how much effort was made through the article statements toward the idea that, "Oh, it is OK, everyone does it like that in Canada, we know about it, and we let it pass because you know it's just the way it is." (Those were my quotes). Here in Canada there is little interest in protecting the public over entrenched union members who are members of organized crime: here union membership is stronger than God.

As the saying goes "same shit different toilet". I have been to Canada and it as a country is not any different then the USA. So it is fulfilling to see that Canadians are just as absorbed into drugs as the US. Addiction is a prominent human trait and humans are addicted to so many things. It just so happens that the US has a population of 300 million so addiction is more apparent in society.